Max & the Magic Marker Will Draw You In

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You've played World of Goo. Could this innovative platformer be WiiWare's next major release? We think so.

By Matt Casamassina

Developer 14351100/max-the-magic-marker/videos/maxmagicmarker_trl_trailer_93009.html" class='autolink'>Press Play wants you to "get your Wii online" -- a wise recommendation because there's an excellent roster of downloadable titles set to debut for Nintendo's system this holiday season. Whether you fancy yourself a pro gamer (and sometimes-masochist) out for genuinely challenging experiences like Cave Story and Super Meat Boy or a casual player in search of fresh software like And Yet it Moves, WiiWare has you covered. But the game that excites me above all else is Max & the Magic Marker, a title so innovative in its use of the Wii remote that you'd think it came from Nintendo. Of course, it hasn't. Instead, it came from a relatively tiny studio in Denmark. Press Play employs about 11 people, but the Max & the Magic Marker team peaked at just seven, according to co-founder and executive producer Ole Teglbjærg -- proof again that development teams needn't be gigantic to conceive and execute big ideas.

Max & the Magic Marker is a seemingly straightforward concept. You play as the lovable Max, who acquires a magic marker in the mail. He has no idea where it came from, but quickly discovers that the pen is very special indeed, for whatever he draws with it springs to life. Max eventually finds himself in an illustrated universe inspired by children stories and must make use of the marker to solve platforming challenges and defend himself against enemies. "I heard a guy [describing it as] Scribblenauts meets Crayon Physics, and thats pretty accurate," clarified Teglbjærg.

The title started out as a PC endeavor, but said Teglbjærg, "When we realized the concept had more potential than what we had worked with before, we quickly figured that Wii, with its pointer device, was the way to go." So, the Press Play team really maximized the power of Nintendo's controller and made it an integral component to the experience -- it became the marker. Players simply point and draw, dynamically creating in-world objects with realistic physics and weight. "[It's a] celebration of children's imaginations," explained lead artist Lasse Outzen. "Max is the star of the game and the players have to help him through the levels using the magic marker. Basically, we tend to describe the game with four words: Run, Jump, Think, Draw!"

Max himself is controlled with the nunchuk's stick. Z jumps. And C grabs onto objects. "The Wii remote controls the marker," said game designer Mikhail. "A to draw. B to erase. A plus B to freeze time and see the 'game world' as it really is in Max's drawings. Shake the Wii remote to erase all the drawings. And, of course, moving the Wii remote itself moves the marker."

Simple, but in videos and screenshots, we see players drawing in an awful lot of game-world objects. How much freedom do you really have? Can you draw anything? A lot and yes. "The only limit is the amount of ink you have available and then, of course, your imagination," explained Teglbjærg. Plus, the drawing mechanism is totally free, according to director and programmer Mikkel Thorsted. That said, it's not as though Max can illustrate anything and it will appear in the game world with realistic properties. The system does not revolve around shape recognition. "It is important to understand that if you draw a helicopter, it won't fly -- it will become a physical object and plummet to the ground," said Outzen. "But see-saws, stairs, hooks and bridges, and slides for that matter, [all work]."